Introduction

It took months of convincing to get my parents on board and eventually they agreed with some conditions:

• It had to be newer than the year 2000 (safety reasons)
• It had to have ABS and airbags
• It had to be less than $5,000

On top of that, I really wanted something interesting. I was looking for something that could provide a good driver’s experience and was lightweight and toss-able in case I ever wanted to rally/autocross or track it down the road. In my head, this could be most easily achieved by getting an older car, which are generally lighter because of their relative simplicity and basic crash structures.

Some of the cars, I looked at and seriously thought about before pulling the trigger on the Impreza were a Mitsubishi Starion (which failed the age requirement, but made a compelling case with the fact it was RWD, with a factory LSD, and its tangential relation to the 4g63, on top of being cheap), a second gen imported Toyota MR2 (which was really cool because it was a hardtop and late model 3sgte but would never pass smog in CA), and a cheap out of state Mitsubishi 3000gt (that was really cheap, but really complicated, hard to maintain and on the heavy/GT side of cars I was looking at).

Eventually, I found this listing, which really interested me. I’m fascinated by 80s and 90s race cars, like Group 4 and Group B rally cars, Group A touring and rally cars, and Group C prototypes. Between Group A and WRC the first generation (GC) Impreza won 3 world rally champions constructors championships and 1 drivers championship with Collin Mcrae. Obviously the USDM 2.5rs had very little connecting it to the WRC car (after all the US market didn’t even get a WRX until 2002), but it still was connected in a way and shared some of the really cool old school rally car looks that I think are really neat, especially in the boring world of SUVs and crossovers we live in today.

I sent a message to the seller of previous owner of my car, and to my surprise they agreed. A few days later, my dad drove the car back from Northern California and I started learning how to drive stick with it.

Initial Troubles

A few days into owning the car, disaster struck. Every time the car started the motor would shake and it had a P0300 CEL in the dash. I freaked out because it was only a couple of days into owning the car and I was scared I had bought a lemon. Additionally, the EJ251 in the 2.5rs is not an engine that is not known for it’s reliability.

On the other hand, one nice thing about the EJ251 (and other SOHC EJs and EA motors) is that the spark plugs stick out just above the frame rail, making accessing the spark plugs doable. It’s definitely not as easy to get to as in other cars, but its also not as bad as in newer turbo EJ motors because it’s simpler and there’s relatively less stuff in the way.